lunch with annie

I picked Annie up at school a couple days ago so Ruth could be a Pizza Mom at Sara's school. Waiting outside Annie's classroom door with the other moms/caretakers, I was greeted twice by mothers or teachers who thought I was Ruth. A little boy came up to me with a grin and said, "Hi! My name is Jonathan!" Without waiting for me to answer, he continued, "Do you want me to spell Jonathan?" I said yes, of course. "J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n," he said proudly. "The th sound is made with the letters 't' and 'h'." Then Annie came out, bundled up in her winter gear, proudly holding the craft she had made that day. She looked so small, so trusting. I was glad to see the teachers carefully checking out each adult before handing over their child. "You look a lot like your sister," Annie's teacher told me. Sort of sad to think how much things have changed when I was in kindergarten. I remembered walking home by myself, and it not being a big deal. Has the world just generally gotten nastier, or have we all just become more aware of the dangers? We start walking home, and Annie tells me about her day. She starts off shyly, but then gets excited, gesticulating with her arms. "Auntie Debbie, will you please walk slower?" Annie asks, and I guiltily suddenly realize that I've been walking at my usual pace, with Annie having to run a bit to keep up. Augh, what a horrible aunt I am. At home, I heat up some Dino-thingies (can't remember the name, but they're dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets) and tomato soup. While we're waiting for lunch, Annie and I play a game of Labyrinth. "Guess what I have in my hand?" Annie asks at one point during the game. "I give up." She pulls her hand from behind her back and slowly opens it up. There is a small 'gold' ring in the middle of her palm, and I recognize it as the one that dangled from the Lord of the Rings bookmark I gave her a long while back. "This is the One Ring," she intones, "Forged by the Dark Lord Sauron." She makes her voice scary-sounding at the end, and then grins at me. "I sounded like Sauron, didn't I?" It's so cool being an aunt. Blatherpic: Annie and Sara and Jeff. Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ